Increasing Understanding for Syrian Refugee Children with Empirical Evidence

Today, Syrians represent the largest refugee group in the world. Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2012, more than 5.2 million Syrians have fled the country as refugees, and about half of these are children. Most of the Syrian refugees are currently living in neighboring countries, with Turkey hosting the largest group with numbers above 3.2 million as of November 2017. Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq combined host about 2 million Syrian refugees. While the Syrian crisis, deservedly, has been covered in the news and debated in terms of it effects internationally, we lack empirical evidence of how this crisis is affecting children and families. This special issue is designed to begin to address this important gap in the literature with five new empirical studies on Syrian refugee children, focusing on their psychological and educational needs.